But in an early stroke of marketing wizardry, Akio Morita hung a huge Japanese Flag above the entrance.: *the first rising sun New York had seen since Pearl Harbor.

*And the buzz was on*..

After the reporters came hundreds of potential customers to gawk at Sony's new 13 cm micro-TV, and before long the little gadgets were flying out the door and into American living rooms.

That's pretty much the way it has been with Sony products ever since. The Trinitron, the Walkman, the Discman and now the Playstation have changed our lives.

And they have made Sony -not Coke or GE- the best recognized brand in America.

Morita the master showman and marketing genius died of pneumonia on Oct 3, 1999 at age 78, but few men in business can claim a bigger legacy.

Although Sony's engineering triumphs owe more to co-founder MasaruIbuka, it was Morita who redefined ''Made in Japan''.

His passing, six years after being felled by a stroke during his morning tennis game, marked a symbolic end to a remarkable era, not just for Sony, but also for Japan.

The Company that Morita and Ibuka established in postwar Tokyo has become a $70 billion plus global giant in consumer electronics and media entertainment.

However, as John Nathan points out in *Sony: The Private Life*, the company's stunning rise -like that of Japan- does not guarantee its future.

True, Sony's success was due to technological vision, innovative engineering and brilliant marketing.

But this book, which offers an unprecedented glimpse into the human triumphs and poignant failings of Japan's preeminent business miracle, also shows that Sony was often driven not by business sense by its founders whims, and personal relationships.

For the most part, that style of leadership just worked fine. As Nathan documents, Ibuka's technical instincts were practically infallible and Morita had a golden gut for hit products.

In 1979, for instance, practically nobody within Sony believed in the marketability of tape player that couldn't record. Moreover, headphones in Japan signaled impaired hearing and deafness was an unacceptable sign of weakness.

Morita countered that Sony would establish a new *headphone culture* and the Walkman was born.

Ibuka's pursuit of the perfect color television almost bankrupted the company before a smart engineer at the very last minute discovered the basis for the *Trinitron technology*.

Sony would have saved millions in the 1970s if the company hadn't persisted with its Betamax videotape format when the rest of the world preferred the dominant VHS.

The Honour and Serving of the latest Operational Research on *Icons, visionaries, marketing geniuses, and great thinkers* continues. Thank Ya all for reading and sharing forward. And see you on the following one.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Japan. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and..... Twitter-!E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011: